all grain setup almost complete

[MichaelM]

so I have the mashtun built, done a few batches and everything turned out great.... but to be honest I am tired of stacking chairs on my kitchen table to get gravity to do the work.. tired of lifting a bucket full of 170 degree water up over my head to set it up for my sparge etc etc.... SO doing some research looking at sculptures etc etc I finally got everything finalized and started on the build..

Boil kettle(had for awhile) 34 quart stainless turkey fryer with a nice stainless stand

Mash tun (completed) typical 10 gallon gott cooler with a false bottom

Hot liquor tun(building today/tomorrow) 60 quart igloo icecube with an 120 volt 1500 watt heating element(yay no more lifting hot water!!)


Sculpture(building tomorrow) found this great website for converting a 6 foot wood ladder into a nice fold up and store away stand (http://home.comcast.net/~midnighthomebrewers/brewladder.htm ) very nice and fits my limited storage space perfectly.


Only other things I will be adding sometime in the future will be a keg for a brew pot (mmmm 10 gallon batches) and a bigger mashtun when I get said keg so I can do the bigger gravity beers if so desired.. Will also be building a steam injection setup out of a pressure cooker for step mashing.....

I will post some links to pics over the next couple days as everything comes together

[MrNate]

I like that ladder thingy. Pretty elegant solution if you ask me.

[MichaelM]

Yea I thought so too... I had thought of using a ladder before but couldnt really decide how to make shelves for it. Never did think of removing a couple steps and making a fold down shelf like that... my brew partners should be shouwing up in a few hours and we are going to get started on the ladder today.

the silicone is drying on the hot liquor tank right now and will finish wiring it up tomorrow and testing it so will post a few pics when I get them

[HogieWan]

I was planning a triangular brewing stand that I will build out of wood. I got the idea looking at my ladder, but mine won't fold up, but will have wheels. I plan to use it to store my tuns and other equiptment while not in use.

[MichaelM]

nice hogie. all my brew equipment goes into a closet and this brewladder will prolly fit in there as well....

Update: yea well counting on people to help out.... ones sick and the other forgot and made other plans.... tell you what they are about ready to be wrote out of the beer will LOL. so here is me pouring another homebrew and getting back to work... by myself... like usual...

[Spicoli]

Great low cost idea. I just sent the plans to a buddy of mine who has just begun to homebrew. I can't believe how expensive extract is these days. I made a recipe on Promash a few weeks ago and converted it to extract for my cousin who is also new to brew. I did my standard 11 gallon batch and his was only 5 gallons. My bill came out to be $4.00 more for twice the amount of beer. I was shocked. This invention will be great for those with limited funds.

[MichaelM]

limited funds limited storage space yup yup thats me in a nutshell!!!

almost finished with the brewladder will prolly post pics later this evening

[MichaelM]

As promised a few pictures

http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s8/michael90t/HomeBrewing/

the HTL is all wired and just letting the silicone dry for a day or so before I fill it up and run it. Its still all dirty inside from the drilling and such and when I am sure its not leaking I will mount the box and faceplate to the side of it.... The faceplate was also drilled to take a 120v neon light so I can tell at a glance if its on or not.

the mashtun manifold is the old one it worked great but I am to heavy handed with the mash spoon and I kept dinging the hell out of the stainless braid so I changed to a stainless false bottom.....

the kettle and burner is an ebay 89 dollar special. 34 quart stainless kettle with a stainless stand thats plenty big enough to put a keggle on it for the future. Nice and beefy and very sturdy.


And the brewladder. as you can see it still needs cleaned up and sanded then stained/sealed. Also its plenty high enough for a keggle when I go that route and will prolly be able to trim a few inches off the legs once I get a keg to convert and see how much room I have.....


the completed setup(meaning the new HLT and stand) will get to see its first brew on the 5th(national Homebrew Day) I am doing a brew at my house so anyone who is in ohio and wants to come over and brew is invited!!!

[MrNate]

That's cool - where did you get the light?

Also, is there a cheap and easy thermostat available for those heater elements that goes up to boiling? The water heating t-stats I see only go up to 180 or something like that.

Anyway, that's a nice setup. Really smart.

[MichaelM]

the light radio shack something like 2 bucks for two of them.

No I havent found a CHEAP thermostat all the ones made for water tanks only go to 130-150 degrees. I believe its the highest they are allowed to make them because of burn risks and such.... there are other temp controllers out there but I just hooked mine up to a regular light switch and figure I will just keep track of temp till I hit what I want and then shut it off... will prolly make a thermowell eventually for a temp probe and hook up a small motor and a stirrer to help keep the temp even eventually but those fall into the "will do for fun when I have the money" catagory lol

all in all I dont have alot of money in the whole setup
I made my own bulkhead fittings for the coolers and such.... if I had to do it over again my mashtun would have been one of the igloo 48 quart ICECUBE coolers... 2 more gallon capacity then my round cooler.... pretty close to the same benifits as far as smaller footprint/better grainbed depth for smaller batches, easier to build a manifold for(square versus round) and only 15 bucks versus the 60 dollars a gott 10 gallon cooler will cost you.... so I could have saved ALOT of money going that route but they didnt have them in this area till this season :(

[MrNate]

well, it's not exactly cheap, but I found a line voltage controller on McMaster-carr for around $70 that goes from 100-240 and has a 1/2"npt thermowell.

McMaster part# 1962K6

[HarkJohnny]

man, that is a really cool idea. well done!

[MichaelM]

thermowells are easy to make I would prolly get this one

1760K77

digital readout and temp probe. doesnt go up as high but who the hell needs 240 degrees lol 212 is just fine with me :)

[MrNate]

That's the JCI A419, right? I might need to check ebay for one of those. I just put a bid in on a cheap Honeywell version of the one I was looking at, but I think you're right about the digital control. And about the practical max of 212.

Guess I'll have to figure out how to make a thermowell.

Your setup has given me a lot of great ideas.

[MichaelM]

wait till I dig up a damned pressure cooker on the cheap and build a steam injection setup :) might even be fun with a really pale ale to use the steam injection for boiling so that there would be 0 burning/darkening of the wort LOL

[MichaelM]

http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s8/michael90t/HomeBrewing/


few new pics of my brewladder got it stained and sealed up with urathan.... looks pretty :)

[Mad Scientist]

Hey micheal, I know you listed it else where in another thread, but what is the equipment that you are using for your HLT?

[MichaelM]

the HLT is
60 quart igloo ICECUBE cooler
bulkhead is a 1/2" brass hex nipple( little longer then a close nipple and it has a hex section in the middle for a wrench)
1/2" ball valve threaded
a female 1/2"threaded to 3/8 compression fitting
2 stainless 3/4" washers
and the rubber gasket that comes on the stock drainplug

just put that together with a bent piece of 3/8 inch soft copper I had laying around for the pickup tube

then the heating element is a 120 volt 1500 watt electric heating element I wired to a regular light switch and added a 120 neon lamp so I can tell at a glance if its on or not.


eventually I am going to add a thermowell to it so I can just stuff my digital probe into the side for temps but not have to have it permanently mounted to it and a sight gauge for water level and maybe sometype of small electric motor with a blade on the end to mix up the water as its heating/resting to help keep the temp uniform...... but those are the nice but not necessary stuff that comes when money does LOL

[jeffsav]

I was going to ask what the parts were for your HLT setup also. Ironic that the 60 qt Igloo at WalMart here was only about $24, compared to the rip-off $40 I paid for the 48 qt Igloo IceCube, which I happened to see for $30 at a CVS. I'll stop ranting now. :)

Anyway, thanks also for the post about the proper connections for the lauter tun. I haven't gotten back to Home Depot yet, but I'm pretty sure the 45 connector with the T tilted slightly will have the manifold flush with the bottom of the cooler.

Jeff

[toneyc]

OMG! I paid $12.75 for my 48 qt Igloo Ice Cube at Wal-Mart.

:eek:
Toney.

[jeffsav]

Don't rub it in! :)

[Carl762]

Nice setup. I might just have to build a beer ladder.

Right now, I'm much more interested in a immersion heater for sparge water. McMaster-Carr's site is awesome, but a wee bit spendy. However, when it comes to beer ... money is no object.

I want to heat the water up in a rectangular 48 qt cooler. Do you guys think Part 3656K141 at http://www.mcmaster.com/ would do the job nicely?

[MichaelM]

hell I just used a 120volt 1500 watt electric heater element cost like 8 bucks at lowes.... wired it to a light switch(think that was like 40 cents or something) the box cost like a buck and the cover was the most expensive thing at about 1.20 or something like that..... oh and went to radio shack and picked up a 120volt neon light for a couple bucks so I can tell its on....... oh and I used an old heavy duty extension cord cut it in half used one have for the power for the HTL and used the other have for a 4gang power block I made thats attached to the ladder....... basicaly lets me plug the HLT into it or anything else I might need to plug into it while brewing....

also remembered I had a couple 120 volt 1/8 horse motors packed away... will prolly end up tying one into the HLT with a rod and a simple stir blade on it to get rid of any thermal layering as the water heats and help get a nice even heating....

sure it doesnt have temp controll or anything but brewing would be kinda boring if I didnt have some things to check on and do lol.

Hell if anything I would add this to it for temp controll from mcmaster carr pn# 1760K77. Even with all those bells and whistles its still cheaper then the bulb element you was looking at...

[Carl762]

Cool. I need to research further. Hope you don't mind a couple more questions. I'm an electronic noob.

[MichaelM]

I never mind questions

[Carl762]

Thanks.

[MichaelM]

woohoo I just picked up a 12 quart pressure cooker for 18 bucks at a yard sale... thing looks brand new. Now its time to drill and tap the lid and install a valve and some copper pipe to build the steam injection system for controlling temps in the mashtun :)

[darylM]

I thought you wanted something to do on brew day? You are just one temp controller from doing nothing but setting it up and drinking beer.;)

[MichaelM]

lol one pid and a pump or two prolly :)

nah everything is all manual still.. the steam injection is because I mash in coolers so it allows me to do step mashes without adding a ton of water through infusion mashes(something I have had problems hitting target temps with anyways...) or decoction(unless its a good idea for the style)

ALSO with the size of the pressure cooker I have I could basicaly get a good boil going in the brew kettle with steam then switch over to flame heat to have practically no chance of scorching the wort for some of the super pale beers.....

[jeffsav]

Hi Michael,

What kind of tube do you use for the connection from the HLT to the sparge arm? I might get a 60 qt Igloo Icecube cooler and try the same setup. I know we have those locally at reasonable prices, unlike the 48 qt. :) Thanks,

Jeff

[MichaelM]

I just used regular 3/8 tubing like we all use for racking etc...


the sparge arm is just some 1/2 inch cpvc that i put together and a few tees and caps.

then i drilled a ton of tiney holes in it and realized there was to many holes LOL and even my smallest drill bit was really to big to use.... So I went back with the cpvc glue and put a drop on each hole to cover it up then when it was basicaly set (it turns real rubbery) I took a needle and just poked some tiney holes back through some of the holes.... and it works perfect


Edit: I am going to try to get a brew done next week either my oatmeal stout or something in the bitter/apa/ipa area will post some pics of the setup complete and in action...

Believe it or not with the problem I have had lately with my brew partners I havent even gotten to brew on the new setup yet :(

[jeffsav]

Hi Michael and others.......

Quick question about working with CPVC tubing. How important is it to actually use CPVC cement for connecting the tubing, connectors, etc? Seems the connections are pretty tight as it is and it'd be easier to take things apart when not being used. Is it really necessary to glue things together? Just wondering....... Thanks,

Jeff

[mookow]

Originally posted by MichaelM
Believe it or not with the problem I have had lately with my brew partners I havent even gotten to brew on the new setup yet :(

I've found that almost everyone likes the idea of making their own beer... the number of people that are willing to actually show up and help out is much much smaller.

[MichaelM]

Originally posted by mookow
I've found that almost everyone likes the idea of making their own beer... the number of people that are willing to actually show up and help out is much much smaller.

yea that is a lesson I have learned the hard way..


Jeff

Depends on how your manifold is built.. for a square one I would glue the t's and end peices leaving the peices that connect the back half and front hald unglued for taking apart and cleaning